The Printed Edit  ·  N° 01

The Wild Atlantic Journey

Seven nights in Ireland. Dublin, Kerry, Clare.

Deborah Nunez, Editor

This is the route we send friends when they call from the States, and the only seven-night route we publish. Three bases, no one-night stays, and no attempt to circle the island in a week.

Inside the full itinerary →Request the PDF →
N° 01  ·  The Printed Edit
High contrast is off

“The version readers print and bring with them.”

What this edition covers

  • ·The three bases and the nights each one earns
  • ·The Merrion, The Europe and Dromoland Castle, with the rooms that matter
  • ·A private driver for the country legs, and how to price it
  • ·The open-jaw flight: into Dublin, out of Shannon
  • ·Why Galway and Connemara are left out, and where they belong

Who this edition is for

First-time visitors who want one careful week, not a dozen towns.

Locations featured

Dublin · Killarney · Ring of Kerry · County Clare · The Burren and the Cliffs of Moher

Route highlights

  1. 01Days 1, 2: Dublin on foot. No car.
  2. 02Day 3: Private driver to Killarney
  3. 03Days 4, 5: The national park, then the Ring of Kerry
  4. 04Day 6: Across to Dromoland Castle
  5. 05Day 7: The Burren and the Cliffs. Day 8: fly from Shannon.

Hotel highlights

  • ·The Merrion in Dublin, two nights
  • ·The Europe in Killarney, three nights
  • ·Dromoland Castle in County Clare, two nights

Editor's letter

We wrote this edition because the same phone call kept arriving from the States. Nine towns in seven days, a rental car booked before the hotels, and a question that was never really a question: does this look right to you.

It did not. It almost never does. The first draft of an Irish week is always too wide, and the fix is always the same, which is to take a third of it out and give the time back to the places that are left.

What follows is the week we actually route. Three bases: Dublin for two nights, Kerry for three, County Clare for two. A private driver for the country legs, no one-night stays, and enough unclaimed hours that the trip has room to surprise you.

Read it once before you book, then bring it with you.

Deborah Nunez, Editor

Look inside

13 printed pages. Tap any page to read it full size.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

Contents

Volume I  ·  Seven days, three bases, Dublin in and Shannon out  ·  13 pages

I

p. 5

Before You Book Anything

The decisions that shape the whole week, made in the right order.

Most Irish trips are lost in the first hour of planning, before a single hotel is chosen. The order matters more than the list. Decide the length of the week, then the number of bases, then the rooms, then the driver. Reverse that order and you will spend the trip driving to keep a schedule you invented in February.

Seven days in Ireland is three bases. Not five, and not seven. Every hotel change costs you the back half of one afternoon and the front half of the next morning, which is to say it costs you a day of your life for the privilege of a different shower. Fly into Dublin and out of Shannon, and the week never has to double back.

Open at page 5

II

p. 6

Dublin, Two Nights

A city opening that does not waste the jet lag.

Land, do not sleep, and walk. Dublin rewards the first-day fog better than anywhere else in the country because the whole centre is small enough to be crossed on foot and dense enough that you keep arriving somewhere before you tire.

Georgian squares in the morning while the light is flat. The Long Room if you have pre-booked, and only then. A long lunch, a short lie down, and dinner somewhere that does not need you to dress up on the first night. No car in Dublin, at all.

Open at page 6

III

p. 7

Kerry, Three Nights

One stop at Cashel, then three nights by the lakes in Killarney.

A private driver collects you from the hotel door and takes the long westward leg in one clean run, with an hour at the Rock of Cashel and nothing else. Arrive in Killarney by mid-afternoon and let the first evening belong to the hotel.

Base at The Europe, on the lake, for all three nights. One day inside the national park: the Gap of Dunloe, Muckross and Torc. One full day on the Ring with your driver reading the weather and the coaches. Sheen Falls Lodge in Kenmare is the quieter estate alternative, for readers who would rather the woods than the lake.

Open at page 7

IV

p. 8

County Clare, Two Nights

Dromoland, the Burren and the Cliffs at the right hour.

A short transfer north, with Adare on the way if you want it. Be at Dromoland by early afternoon, because the grounds are the reason to come.

The Burren in the morning, the Cliffs of Moher late in the day when the coaches have gone, and a last morning that ends twenty minutes from Shannon. The week closes where it should, without a drive back across the country.

Open at page 8

V

p. 9

What We Left Out

The exclusions, and the reasoning behind each one.

A guide is only as useful as the things it refuses to include. Blarney is out. The Cliffs at midday are out. Galway and Connemara are out, not because they are lesser, but because a single night wedged between two drives costs more than it returns in a week this length.

None of these are bad places. They are simply the wrong shape for seven days. Save Connemara for a second trip, or take ten days.

Open at page 9

The Register

p. 11

The stays we would book ourselves for this edition, and the one line that explains why each is here.

Seven days is not a small amount of time in Ireland. It is exactly enough, provided you spend it in four places instead of nine. Book the rooms first, leave the last day empty, and let the weather do the rest.

The printed edition

The full edition is set in print and ready to read.

In short

TL;DR. The Wild Atlantic Journey. Seven nights in Ireland. Dublin, Kerry, Clare. First-time visitors who want one careful week, not a dozen towns.

Where to stay

Where this leads

Continue your journey: read the full itinerary, or have us build your trip around this edition.

Read the full itinerary →Build my journey →You might also like the printed edit archive →

Common questions

About The Wild Atlantic Journey

Continue the archive

Cover of the bound printed edition N° 02, The Long Way Round, from The Ireland Edit. The linen-bound volume photographed as a physical book, with a documentary photograph of The Inagh Valley, Connemara, County Galway tipped into the front board.

N° 02

The Long Way Round

A 10-day Ireland itinerary, taken slowly.

Cover of the bound printed edition N° 03, Dublin, Properly, from The Ireland Edit. The linen-bound volume photographed as a physical book, with a documentary photograph of Henrietta Street, Dublin 1 tipped into the front board.

N° 03

Dublin, Properly

Three days in Dublin, the way we'd send friends.

This page belongs to The Printed Edit.

Read the next edition

Download the itinerary